Gundelia tournefortii: Fractionation, Chemical Composition and GLUT4 Translocation Enhancement in Muscle Cell Line

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a chronic metabolic disease, which could affect the daily life of patients and increase their risk of developing other diseases. Synthetic anti-diabetic drugs usually show severe side effects. In the last few decades, plant-derived drugs have been intensively studied, particularly because of a rapid development of the instruments used in analytical chemistry. We tested the efficacy of Gundelia tournefortii L. (GT) in increasing the translocation of glucose transporter-4 (GLUT4) to the myocyte plasma membrane (PM), as a main strategy to manage T2D. In this study, GT methanol extract was sub-fractionated into 10 samples using flash chromatography. The toxicity of the fractions on L6 muscle cells, stably expressing GLUTmyc, was evaluated using the MTT assay. The efficacy with which GLUT4 was attached to the L6 PM was evaluated at non-toxic concentrations. Fraction 6 was the most effective, as it stimulated GLUT4 translocation in the absence and presence of insulin, 3.5 and 5.2 times (at 250 μg/mL), respectively. Fraction 1 and 3 showed no significant effects on GLUT4 translocation, while other fractions increased GLUT4 translocation up to 2.0 times. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry of silylated fractions revealed 98 distinct compounds. Among those compounds, 25 were considered anti-diabetic and glucose disposal agents. These findings suggest that GT methanol sub-fractions exert an anti-diabetic effect by modulating GLUT4 translocation in L6 muscle cells, and indicate the potential of GT extracts as novel therapeutic agents for T2D

The Origin of Cultivation and Proto-Weeds, Long Before Neolithic Farming

Weeds are currently present in a wide range of ecosystems worldwide. Although the beginning of their evolution is largely unknown, researchers assumed that they developed in tandem with cultivation since the appearance of agricultural habitats some 12,000 years ago. These rapidly-evolving plants invaded the human disturbed areas and thrived in the new habitat. Here we present unprecedented new findings of the presence of “proto-weeds” and small-scale trial cultivation in Ohalo II, a 23,000-year-old hunter-gatherers' sedentary camp on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Israel. We examined the plant remains retrieved from the site (ca. 150,000 specimens), placing particular emphasis on the search for evidence of plant cultivation by Ohalo II people and the presence of weed species. The archaeobotanically-rich plant assemblage demonstrates extensive human gathering of over 140 plant species and food preparation by grinding wild wheat and barley. Among these, we identified 13 well-known current weeds mixed with numerous seeds of wild emmer, barley, and oat. This collection provides the earliest evidence of a human-disturbed environment—at least 11 millennia before the onset of agriculture—that provided the conditions for the development of "proto-weeds", a prerequisite for weed evolution. Finally, we suggest that their presence indicates the earliest, small-scale attempt to cultivate wild cereals seen in the archaeological record

Unprecedented yet gradual nature of first millennium CE intercontinental crop plant dispersal revealed in ancient Negev desert refuse.

Peer reviewed: TrueGlobal agro-biodiversity has resulted from processes of plant migration and agricultural adoption. Although critically affecting current diversity, crop diffusion from Classical antiquity to the Middle Ages is poorly researched, overshadowed by studies on that of prehistoric periods. A new archaeobotanical dataset from three Negev Highland desert sites demonstrates the first millennium CE's significance for long-term agricultural change in Southwest Asia. This enables evaluation of the 'Islamic Green Revolution (IGR)' thesis compared to 'Roman Agricultural Diffusion (RAD)', and both versus crop diffusion during and since the Neolithic. Among the findings, some of the earliest aubergine (Solanum melongena) seeds in the Levant represent the proposed IGR. Several other identified economic plants, including two unprecedented in Levantine archaeobotany-jujube (Ziziphus jujuba/mauritiana) and white lupine (Lupinus albus)-implicate RAD as the greater force for crop migrations. Altogether the evidence supports a gradualist model for Holocene-wide crop diffusion, within which the first millennium CE contributed more to global agricultural diversity than any earlier period.As part of a Ph.D. dissertation conducted at Bar-Ilan University, this research was supported by the Bar-Ilan Doctoral Fellowships of Excellence Program, the Rottenstreich Fellowship of the Israel Council for Higher Education, and the Molcho fund for agricultural research in the Negev (awarded to D.F.). As part of the NEGEVBYZ project, this research was also supported by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant 648427) and the Israel Science Foundation (grant 340-14) (awarded to G.B.O). Manuscript preparation was further supported by a Newton International Fellowship of the British Academy (NIF23/100633) and a Marie S. Curie International Fellowship of the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme (Project CroProLITE, no. 101025677), awarded to D.F

The association of arable weeds with modern wild cereal habitats: implications for reconstructing the origins of plant cultivation in the Levant

Reconstructing the origins of plant cultivation in southwest Asia is crucial for understanding associated processes such as the emergence of sedentary communities and domesticated crops. Among the criteria archaeobotanists developed for identifying the earliest plant cultivation, the presence of potential arable weeds found in association with wild cereal and legume remains has been used as a basis for supporting models of prolonged wild plant cultivation before domesticated crops appear. However, the proposed weed floras mainly consist of genus-level identifications that do not differentiate between arable weeds and related species that characterise non-arable habitats. Here we test, for the first time, whether the potential arable weed taxa widely used to identify wild plant cultivation also occur in non-cultivated wild cereal populations. Based on modern survey data from the southern Levant we show that the proposed weed taxa characterise both grasslands and fields. Our findings, therefore, do not support the use of these taxa for reconstructing early cultivation. Instead, for future studies we suggest an approach based on the analysis of plant functional traits related to major agroecological variables such as fertility and disturbance, which has the potential to overcome some of the methodological problems

Wild barley (<i>Hordeum spontaneum</i>).

<p>(A) Wild barley field in Yakum Park (32° 14′ 50.28″ N, 34° 50′ 33″ E. March 18, 2013). It grows here with other species such as <i>Galium aparine</i>, <i>Chrysanthemum coronarium</i>, <i>Notobasis syriaca</i>, and <i>Anthemis</i> sp. (B) Same field, showing wild barley at three ripening stages – green, green-yellow and yellow.</p

Proto-weed species from Ohalo II: current weeds in cultivated fields.

<p>^aThe taxa identified as two closely related species in this table are both weeds. Some of these plants are edible.</p><p>Proto-weed species from Ohalo II: current weeds in cultivated fields.</p

Wild-type (left) and domestic-type (right) scars in rachises of wild barley (<i>Hordeum spontaneum</i>) from Ohalo II.

<p>Wild-type (left) and domestic-type (right) scars in rachises of wild barley (<i>Hordeum spontaneum</i>) from Ohalo II.</p

Location map of Ohalo II and central area of excavation at the site.

<p>Location map of Ohalo II and central area of excavation at the site.</p